"task manager" for iphone4?

"task manager" for iphone4?

I don't know what to call it in the Apple world. back when I had a windows 6.1 smartphone there was a handy app called Task Manager that let you know what was running in the background. Is there such an app for the iphone4? I'm still trying to track down the app or process (it's not ipod or gps) that sometimes drains my battery.

Re: "task manager" for iphone4?

Have you checked your app tray? This may not do what your task manager did, but you can close running apps this way. Double tap the home button, then long press on an app icon until it wiggles. Press the red x to close the app.

Re: "task manager" for iphone4?

In addition to the home button double tap trick, free apps in the app store including System Lite will give you the process list. Only the home double tap thing will let you kill/close those apps. Also, remember that the home double tap is actually the list of Recent Apps - only the first 3-5 will actually be memory resident, and possibly running. If you want to "clear out" background apps, you only need to close the first 3-5 of those. Also, you should probably not force quit the ipod app if you're in the middle of a podcast - it forgets your listening position if you do.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: "task manager" for iphone4?

From what I've read from Apple though, those apps listed on the quick access bar aren't actually running, they're merely suspended and when you select them from the quick access bar (the bar you get when you double-click the home button), you're just reactivating the application at the point you left it.

For example the Weather, Remote, Safari and Stocks are the first three apps listed. I know for a fact that none of those apps are actually doing anything at all, and won't do anything until I select one of them.

A great test is to enter a web site address in Safari, then before the page can finnish loading, exit out of the app, put the phone down, come back to it an hour later, go back into Safari and see if your page is loaded.

It won't be. It stopped all activity the moment you left the application, so an app being 'active' isn't quite true. There's a few apps that do work as multitasked items, iPod, email apps come to mind, but most really don't.

Re: "task manager" for iphone4?

[ Edited ]

DimentoGraven wrote:

From what I've read from Apple though, those apps listed on the quick access bar aren't actually running, they're merely suspended and when you select them from the quick access bar (the bar you get when you double-click the home button), you're just reactivating the application at the point you left it.

For example the Weather, Remote, Safari and Stocks are the first three apps listed. I know for a fact that none of those apps are actually doing anything at all, and won't do anything until I select one of them.

A great test is to enter a web site address in Safari, then before the page can finnish loading, exit out of the app, put the phone down, come back to it an hour later, go back into Safari and see if your page is loaded.

It won't be. It stopped all activity the moment you left the application, so an app being 'active' isn't quite true. There's a few apps that do work as multitasked items, iPod, email apps come to mind, but most really don't.

This reminds me of how some of the built-in apps (e.g., Notes, Weather, Safari) would open almost immediately when you open them before iPhone 4 and/or iOS 4 came out...almost as if they were already running; how Apple was able to pull this off was pretty much smoke and mirrors--the iOS would take an image snapshot of the most recent data that was displayed right before the app was closed, then when you opened the app again, the iOS would redisplay that image on-screen and hold it there while the actual/updated data was being loaded into memory.

Think this sounds farfetched? You can try it yourself--using an iPhone 3G, open the Notes app, create a new note, then save it; you'll see it listed as having last been modified "Today". Open Notes again the following day; notice how quickly it opens--seemingly just as quickly as those apps do in all them Apple iPhone commercials--and displays the list of all the notes you created...including the one you created just the day before; you will see for a brief moment that the note you created yesterday still shows as having been modified "Today"...until the iOS can properly update the modify time of that particular note, at which point it should correctly show as "Yesterday" (or a previous date, if you wait more than a day to open the Notes app). Now since we know that--again, on an iPhone 3G--Notes isn't one of those built-in apps that is allowed to stay resident in memory even after closing it like the Safari, Mail, Phone, and iPod apps...how do you think this anomaly is occuring?

Re: "task manager" for iphone4?

[ Edited ]

DimentoGraven wrote:

From what I've read from Apple though, those apps listed on the quick access bar aren't actually running, they're merely suspended and when you select them from the quick access bar (the bar you get when you double-click the home button), you're just reactivating the application at the point you left it.

For example the Weather, Remote, Safari and Stocks are the first three apps listed. I know for a fact that none of those apps are actually doing anything at all, and won't do anything until I select one of them.

A great test is to enter a web site address in Safari, then before the page can finnish loading, exit out of the app, put the phone down, come back to it an hour later, go back into Safari and see if your page is loaded.

It won't be. It stopped all activity the moment you left the application, so an app being 'active' isn't quite true. There's a few apps that do work as multitasked items, iPod, email apps come to mind, but most really don't.

Applications that are written for multi-taksing will go down to that bar, it is not the phone but the app being compiled for multi-tasking that determines it - Apps like Trapster, phantom TWC, that are multi-tasking enabled will run in the background and show up in that bar. If the app is not coded for multi-tasking, it will just reside down there and carve out minimal slice of memory until you bring it to the forefront again.

Most well written multitasking apps will have a warning box or a setting in their configuration that you can enable to allow background processing.

Re: "task manager" for iphone4?

I tried System Lite but it wasn't too helpful because it doesn't say anything about how long the process has been running and how much resources like CPU it's been using. I was surprised to see dozens of processes running that I didn't expect.

I'm thinking about uninstalling the handful of my 3rd party apps and seeing if the problem goes away and installing them one by one making sure it doesn't drain the battery. Is it safe to assume Apple's pre-installed apps isn't the culprit? Is this a good idea?

Re: "task manager" for iphone4?

davidsf wrote:

I tried System Lite but it wasn't too helpful because it doesn't say anything about how long the process has been running and how much resources like CPU it's been using. I was surprised to see dozens of processes running that I didn't expect.

I'm thinking about uninstalling the handful of my 3rd party apps and seeing if the problem goes away and installing them one by one making sure it doesn't drain the battery. Is it safe to assume Apple's pre-installed apps isn't the culprit? Is this a good idea?

would not say it is "safe to assume" on Apple's apps, they maybe the culprit also....

Re: "task manager" for iphone4?

All apps that have previously been open (iOS4 multi-task or not) will appear on the multi-task bar by double tapping home and you will see what apps are suspended. Some apps suspended will have active or running memory to resume the last session. Other apps will restart from the beginning such as Blizzard Authenticator or your bank apps.

You can download several free memory running apps, but some will not display all relevant data. Paid apps do include more relevant data but not how long they have been suspended.

I utilize Memory Doctor which displays the Process Name and the Description of the app. It doesn't tell you how much the app memory is using nor the amount of time suspended. It does tell you how much processing memory you have available and in current usage or suspended usage.

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If you wish to free up memory, you can close any apps you are not expecting to run further. Any app hardwired by Apple will still run regardless of being terminated. Other apps will require a restart if you are running active chats like Skype.